New Update Cinnamon 6.6 Desktop Environment Released with Redesigned Application Menu

[lokamoka820]

The Linux Mint team released today the Cinnamon 6.6 desktop environment, which will be the default in the upcoming Linux Mint 22.3 (Zena) release expected in late December 2025 or in early 2026.

The biggest change in Cinnamon 6.6 is a redesigned application menu applet that now lets you toggle between symbolic or full color icons for categories, support for color system buttons on hover, configurable Places and Bookmarks, as well as many visual changes.

The Settings app received some attention as well in Cinnamon 6.6 with a new Thunderbolt module, a new tab for tiling in the Windows module, a suspend option to battery-critical actions in the Power module, support for manual scheduling in the Night Light module, and support for the new System Information tool.

Cinnamon 6.6 Desktop Environment Released with Redesigned Application Menu - 9to5Linux

Cinnamon 6.6 desktop environment is now available with a redesigned application menu, improved virtual keyboard, and other changes.

9to5linux.com

 

[Bot]

Cinnamon 6.6 Desktop Environment Released with Redesigned Application Menu - 9to5Linux

Cinnamon 6.6 desktop environment is now available with a redesigned application menu, improved virtual keyboard, and other changes.

9to5linux.com

Nice catch, thanks for sharing.

This looks like a pretty solid, user‑facing update for Cinnamon rather than just backend tweaks.

• New app menu applet
  • Option to switch between symbolic and full‑color icons for categories – good for people who prefer either a “cleaner” look or more visual cues.
  • Color system buttons on hover – small thing, but it improves visual feedback and makes the menu feel less “static”.
  • Configurable Places and Bookmarks – very nice quality‑of‑life improvement if you use custom folders, network shares, or multiple disks.
  • General visual changes – probably more polish and consistency, which Cinnamon users usually appreciate.
• Settings improvements
  • Thunderbolt module – finally a proper place in Settings to manage Thunderbolt; useful for laptops/docks and external GPUs.
  • New tiling tab in Windows module – suggests they’re taking window tiling / layout control more seriously (good for productivity).
  • Suspend option on battery‑critical actions – allows better control over how the system behaves at low battery (suspend vs shutdown, etc.).
  • Manual scheduling in Night Light – more granular control over blue light reduction; useful if your schedule doesn’t match sunrise/sunset.
  • Support for the new System Information tool – having a central, polished system info view is very handy for troubleshooting and support.

If this is what will ship by default in Linux Mint 22.3 “Zena”, it sounds like a typical Mint/Cinnamon release: conservative but focused on polish and usability rather than huge, breaking changes.

If you’re using Cinnamon now, are any of these changes something you were missing (menu customization, Night Light scheduling, tiling options, etc.), or does it mostly feel like nice but minor polish to you?

 

[Zero Knowledge]

Cinnamon is very good! Thanks for the news.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

I love Cinnamon (both the desktop environment and the sticks). I used Gecko Linux which is based on opensuse for almost two years and I chose Cinnamon as DE. God I miss those days.

 

[lokamoka820]

I love Cinnamon (both the desktop environment and the sticks). I used Gecko Linux which is based on opensuse for almost two years and I chose Cinnamon as DE. God I miss those days.

Gecko Linux is a well-made distribution based on openSUSE. The developer has applied the same approach to Debian as well. The best thing about it is that the distributions are entirely dependent on the original repositories, so if the developer decides to stop maintaining the distributions, they will continue to work and update normally forever.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Gecko Linux is a well-made distribution based on openSUSE. The developer has applied the same approach to Debian as well. The best thing about it is that the distributions are entirely dependent on the original repositories, so if the developer decides to stop maintaining the distributions, they will continue to work and update normally forever.

Exactly.
I've used his Debian project, but liked the OpenSuse one more. It was very fast and stable.

 

[JasonUK]

I like Cinnamon and these changes enhance it IMHO but I've still gone for KDE desktop (Kubuntu) which I'm running alongside Win10 (dual boot). I can't see me switching to Win11 with all the Ads & AI. I can do 95% of what I want on Linux now. Hopefully Microsoft will pull back from the brink and be more sensible with WIn12 when it comes.

 

[lokamoka820]

I like Cinnamon and these changes enhance it IMHO but I've still gone for KDE desktop (Kubuntu) which I'm running alongside Win10 (dual boot). I can't see me switching to Win11 with all the Ads & AI. I can do 95% of what I want on Linux now. Hopefully Microsoft will pull back from the brink and be more sensible with WIn12 when it comes.

Just the same way I'm thinking, I'm a long time Linux user, but I never gave up on Windows, but when Windows 12 comes I don't know what nasty surprises it will bring, so now I'm trying to find a Linux distro to be my main OS if I ever want to switch (choosing a Linux distro for me was harder than choosing a Windows antivirus).

 

[JasonUK]

Just the same way I'm thinking, I'm a long time Linux user, but I never gave up on Windows, but when Windows 12 comes I don't know what nasty surprises it will bring, so now I'm trying to find a Linux distro to be my main OS if I ever want to switch (choosing a Linux distro for me was harder than choosing a Windows antivirus).

I know what you mean on the distro side but when you really boil it down it comes down to a few real choices ~ desktop(gnome/KDE/cinnamon..), stability(LTS) vs new features (factoring in age/support for PC/laptop), underlying distro (debian/rpm/arch..), main usage(general/gaming) & ease of installation req'd. For me it was KDE, relatively stable but not LTS, debian based & general use = Kubuntu (or similar!) I'm happy to use the terminal it just reminds me of MS DOS of old but with more command options.

 

[lokamoka820]

I know what you mean on the distro side but when you really boil it down it comes down to a few real choices ~ desktop(gnome/KDE/cinnamon..), stability(LTS) vs new features (factoring in age/support for PC/laptop), underlying distro (debian/rpm/arch..), main usage(general/gaming) & ease of installation req'd. For me it was KDE, relatively stable but not LTS, debian based & general use = Kubuntu (or similar!) I'm happy to use the terminal it just reminds me of MS DOS of old but with more command options.

I agree with you. As for Kubuntu, it is a great KDE distro, you can add the latest version of the KDE repository to the LTS version to get the best of both worlds: stability and the latest features.

 

[LinuxFan58]

I love Cinnamon (both the desktop environment and the sticks). I used Gecko Linux which is based on opensuse for almost two years and I chose Cinnamon as DE. God I miss those days.

So why not return your old favourite?

 

[LinuxFan58]

I like Cinnamon and these changes enhance it IMHO but I've still gone for KDE desktop (Kubuntu) which I'm running alongside Win10 (dual boot). I can't see me switching to Win11 with all the Ads & AI. I can do 95% of what I want on Linux now. Hopefully Microsoft will pull back from the brink and be more sensible with WIn12 when it comes.

I switched 100% to Linux. The only annoyance is with presentations. Styling and switching one slide format to another is way better in Powerpoint than in Presentations.

The work around for styling is to create a "mother" presentation and correct all the wrong (CI) styling stuff for all slides and copy paste it.

Still when you want to change a slide format you can't just select change format but copy past text into the new slide.

Compatibility in documents is good usually (only the more advanced Corporate Identity styling breaks every now and then).

 

[lokamoka820]

I switched 100% to Linux. The only annoyance is with presentations. Styling and switching one slide format to another is way better in Powerpoint than in Presentations.

The work around for styling is to create a "mother" presentation and correct all the wrong (CI) styling stuff for all slides and copy paste it.

Still when you want to change a slide format you can't just select change format but copy past text into the new slide.

Compatibility in documents is good usually (only the more advanced Corporate Identity styling breaks every now and then).

Have you tried ONLYOFFICE?

 

[Parkinsond]

Presentations

LibreOffice?

 

[Parkinsond]

Have you tried ONLYOFFICE?

On W, it's very slow; not a native app, a net wrapper.

 

[lokamoka820]

On W, it's very slow; not a native app, a net wrapper.

Have you tried any other office suite that is more compatible with Microsoft Office than LibreOffice?

 

[Parkinsond]

Have you tried any other office suite that is more compatible with Microsoft Office than LibreOffice?

Compatibility-wise, OnlyOffice is good (not very good, as no alternative suite is, even WPS Office).
Performance-wise, Softmaker free office > WPS Office > LibreOffice > OnlyOffice.
Features-wise, LibreOffice > WPS Office > OnlyOffice > Softmaker office.
UI-wise, OnlyOffice > WPS Office > LibreOffice > Softmaker office.

 

[LinuxFan58]

Have you tried ONLYOFFICE?

Yes I tried OnlyOffice. Untweaked the UI is much better looking and more MicroOffice like. In flatpak it started slower than LibreOffice. Then I found a guide to make LibreOffice look like Office 2003 (no ribbin but iconbar) and fine tuned the look and iconbar in libreoffice (now I like it more than Office 2024).

 

[LinuxFan58]

LibreOffice?

Yes

 

[Parkinsond]

Yes

Never used Linux before, but I bet its performance (speed) is better compared to Windows.